Curran raises, spends more than Maragos again

Laura Curran and George Maragos will face off in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary for Nassau County executive.

Laura Curran continued to raise more money than George Maragos in the final weeks before the Democratic primary for Nassau County executive, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday.

Curran’s campaign raised about $87,000 — more than half of which came from two individuals — and spent about $164,000 from Aug. 7 to Aug. 28, leaving her with $369,388 as of Friday.

Maragos, the once-Republican county comptroller who switched parties last year, raised just $27 and spent about $45,000, leaving his self-funded campaign with $1,230,580. The pair will face off Sept. 12.

“I am proud our message is resonating as we continue to broaden our base of support,” Curran said in a statement.

Curran received two large donations — $25,000 from Amedeo Gabrielli, the vice president of New York City-based truck dealer Gabrielli Truck Sales who has given mostly to Republican campaigns; and $20,000 from Bryan Lawrence, an investment banker from Manhattan who founded the firm Yorktown Partners.

Gabrielli, of Sands Point, gave more than $86,000 to Republican County Executive Edward Mangano’s 2013 re-election campaign. Mangano is not seeking a third term this year following his indictment on federal corruption charges last October.

Lawrence is a frequent donor to Democratic and Republican campaigns around the state.

Gabrielli has made 46 political contributions since 2012; all but seven have been to Republican candidates or committees. Only six were for less than $1,000.

Gabrielli’s company, which has facilities in Hicksville and Inwood, does business with Nassau County and received 29 county payments in August, according to records posted online by the county comptroller’s office.

When a Blank Slate Media reporter asked him about his donation to Curran’s campaign, Gabrielli, using an expletive, declined to explain it.

Curran has proposed a $1,000 cap on political contributions by county contractors and their principals. In a Twitter post, Maragos said Curran broke “her campaign pledge before the ink dried.”

“Another politician who cannot be trusted!” wrote Maragos, who was twice elected alongside Mangano.

Maragos received two contributions, but refunded one for $1,000, his report shows. The unsolicited donation broke his self-imposed $27 limit, so Maragos “felt compelled to return it,” he said in a Twitter direct message.

A Curran spokesman, Philip Shulman, said the legislator “is playing by the same rules as everyone else so she can win this election, clean up the mess that the Mangano-Maragos team has left behind and finally give Nassau County the fresh start it deserves.”

Maragos spent nearly $30,000 to air the TV ad he released on Aug. 25. The bulk of his remaining spending went to literature and consulting.

Curran paid $14,000 on Aug. 17 to film a TV ad, her report shows, but her campaign has yet to release one. The money went to AKPD Message & Media, the firm run by David Axelrod, a campaign strategist and onetime adviser to former President Barack Obama.

Curran also received $10,000 from U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice’s Nassau district attorney campaign account. The Democratic former DA has more than $1.6 million left in that account nearly three years after her election to Congress in 2014.

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